The Children Of Mary Udell

In this post, I will be looking at the children of Mary Udell, my 2nd great grandmother.  She was married twice,  first to Daniel Emery and second to my 2nd great grandfather Gilbert Bates.  I have found some confusing information on her children in the online records and family trees.  I want to take a more detailed look at some of the records and see if I can determine anything new by connecting information from various sources.

The first record we will be looking at will be Mary’s death certificate from 1898.

From this document, we have:

• Date of death:  5-21-1898
• Age at death: 86 years 10 mos. 1 day
• Age at first marriage: 16
• Parent of 9 children, 7 living

We can calculate:

• Mary’s date of birth:  7-20-1811
• Date first marriage:  1827

I have no marriage document for Mary and Daniel, but records for their four children show Mary and Daniel as their parents.  I have been in contact with ancestors or relatives of the first two.

1. Margaret Emery (b. 1830)
2. Israel Emery (b. 1832)
3. John Emery (b. 1833)
4. Mary Jane Emery (b. 1839)

Daniel disappeared from the scene around 1839, and it is usually assumed that he died.   About the same time, Mary appears to have married Gilbert.  This is mainly determined by looking at the names and ages of their children as listed in the 1851/52 census.

The Children Of Mary Udell

The census was actually take in Canada West starting in January of 1852.  The census records for the Bates family can be viewed and downloaded at Library and Archives Canada at the following links:

Gilbert is the last name on these pages:  Culbert [Gilbert] Bates pg 1, Culbert [Gilbert] Bates pg 2

The rest of the family are on these pages: Gilbert Bates Family pg 1, Gilbert Bates Family pg 2

All the children from 1839 onward have the Bates surname.  Note that George was born quite a bit earlier (more on him below).

1. George Bates (b. 1833)
2. Jane Bates (b. 1839)
3. Catherine Bates (b. 1842)
4. Gilbert Bates (b. 1843)
5. William Henry Bates (b. 1845)
6. Mary Elizabeth Bates (b. 1850

One more daughter, Sarah Ann Bates, was born in 1852 but apparently after the census was taken.  She shows up in the 1860 US Census for Wales, St Clair, Michigan, after the family moved to the United States.

Analysis

At first glance, it looks like Mary had four children with Daniel and three sons and four daughters with Gilbert for a total of eleven children.  However, her death certificate says she only nine children, so a closer look at the records is in order.

Where does George Bates George fit in?

It would seem that George Bates was not Mary’s child.  He consistently shows in census documents as born 1832 or 1833, the same period that the Emery children were born (1830-1839).  In addition, except for the 1851/52 census, George gives New York as his birthplace, the same as Gilbert’s.   George might have been a son of Gilbert’s or possibly a nephew, but I have not found any sign of a previous marriage or siblings.

George was listed in the household of Gilbert and Mary in Wales, St Clair, Michigan in both the 1860 and 1870 US Federal Censuses.  He died on 5 Jan 1875.  His death record shows his father as Gilbert Bates and his mother as Unknown.

Mary Jane Emery and Jane Bates were likely the same individual

Jane Bates shows up only in the 1851/52 census (age 13, born ~1839) but not in the 1861 census, when she would have been age 22.  She does not appear in any later documents.

Mary Jane Emery does not appear in the 1851/52 census, but is in the 1861 census, married to James Collver.  Her age was 22, the same age that Jane would have been at that time.  Her birth year would have been 1839.

The marriage record for Mary J. Emery and James L. Collver shows they married on 17 Oct 1858. Her age was given as 19, which also gives 1839 as her birth year (1858 minus 19).  The record can be found on Ancestry.com as an index only (no image).

I think that Mary Jane was probably a crossover baby between the two marriages.  Daniel Emery was most likely her biological father since she assumed his last name after the 1851/52 census.  I do not know whether she was born before or after Gilbert entered the scene.

So how many children did Mary actually have?

If we discount George Bates as not being Mary’s child and we consider Mary Jane Emery and Jane Bates as the same individual, we are then left with nine children, the same count as shown on Mary’s death certificate.

1. Margaret Emery (b. 1830)
2. Israel Emery (b. 1832)
3. John Emery (b. 1833)
4. Mary Jane Emery (b. 1839)
5. Catherine Bates (b. 1842)
6. Gilbert Bates (b. 1843)
7. William Henry Bates (b. 1845)
8. Mary Elizabeth Bates (b. 1850)
9. Sarah Ann Bates (b. 1853)

Now we have Mary’s children all accounted for.  This is the child list that I use in my family tree.